FCC rip off

[maryivo]

Hello fellow cruisers, I feel as though I have been given misinformation regarding my FCC of 125% of my cruise fair and the 20% off a cruise I was supposed to be given for booking  before a certain date.  I have called and emailed to no avail.  NCL insists they are in the right even though there is over $1000 missing.  Can anyone please help me and put me in the direction of what to do next.  I feel so cheated and let down.  Thanks in advance.

[klfrodo]

Don't know what your exact circumstances are, but in the cruiseline industry 1 + 1 does not equal 2

125% doesn't say exactly 125% of what.

125% of exactly what you paid? 125% of published brochure rate? 125% of new/updated published brochure rate.

 

And then the 20% off. 20% off what exactly?

 

I know on the cruiseline I'm more familiar with, they will offer 40% off drink package.

But that's not 40% off for what you can buy it right now,,, that's 40% off what the new cost will be if you purchase the package at full price while on the ship.

 

Cruiselines have some fuzzy accounting methods. They do not meet my logic, but they are legal.

[BirdTravels]

5 hours ago, maryivo said:

Hello fellow cruisers, I feel as though I have been given misinformation regarding my FCC of 125% of my cruise fair and the 20% off a cruise I was supposed to be given for booking  before a certain date.  I have called and emailed to no avail.  NCL insists they are in the right even though there is over $1000 missing.  Can anyone please help me and put me in the direction of what to do next.  I feel so cheated and let down.  Thanks in advance.

Please review the email you received at the time of cancellation. It will have the exact amount of your FCC. If you log onto your MyNCL account, it will show exactly what the system things you have for a FCC. 

 

Now, the 20% discount was offered for a very short period of time (like book before April 14th). If you booked that long ago, you would have to look at your confirmation from that timeframe for the discount. 

 

Email: A future cruise credit in the amount of USD x,xxx.xx has been issued to your account. To reflect our appreciation for your business, we will also provide you a BONUS credit of 25% in the amount of USD xxx.xx.

 

 

[Beer Belly]

My understanding it that it is 125% of the Cruise fare, and only the cruise fare.

[Katie H]

For our March/April cancelled cruises, ours was 125% of everything we paid - cruise fare; Govt. Tax/Port Exp/Fees; Bev Svc. Charge; Din Svc Charge.  It came out to the penny.  No fuzzy math.  We used part of it to pay for two December cruises which have now been cancelled.  Now waiting to see if it is all returned to us.  We did receive 20% off the price of several new cruises we booked within the time frame given.

[casofilia]

@maryivo

 

I think you will need to provide a LOT more detail if you are asking for specific assistance.

[SouthLyonCruiser]

Gotta' love my travel agent. She handle it all without any effort from me.

Your situation sounds like another good reason to get a good travel agent and stick with them.

If you do have a travel agent and they are not taking care of this for you, time to get a new one.

[the_scarecrow_in_oz]

18 hours ago, Katie H said:

For our March/April cancelled cruises, ours was 125% of everything we paid - cruise fare; Govt. Tax/Port Exp/Fees; Bev Svc. Charge; Din Svc Charge.  It came out to the penny.  No fuzzy math. 

We also received 125% of EVERYTHING we had paid for when our April cruise cancelled, even the excursions we had paid.

 

We then almost immediately reserved a November 2020 cruise, taking advantage of the 20% discount being offered at the time, and using only money from the FCC. When this November cruise was recently cancelled, they sent us an email with some fuzzy itemization about what we were going to get back and it didn't seem to add up with what they were now posting in my NCL Latitudes account. There seemed to be a difference of almost $3,000 dollars that they appeared to be stiffing me. It finally dawned on me that I was only looking at the money in my NCL Latitudes account. When I checked my wife's account, I found the rest of the money - and it all adds up to the original 125% cruise credit awarded us back in APRIL.

 

It does not include any money for the 20% discount we got back in April, but I didn't expect that it would.

I kind of DID EXPECT another 20% discount offer if we booked another cruise within a certain time period, but all we got was a 10% discount, which I'll take with a "Thank YOU", but which I also think is chincy of them considering that the base price of the same cabin on comparable cruises on the same ship being offered for 2021, 2022, and 2023 are coming up 10% - 15% more expensive, AND they are offering only 2 "free offers" when with both of our previous reservations this year we got 4.

[Seafan22]

I went through a similar “misunderstanding.“

 

I got my FCC and 25% FCC, booked a 20%-off cruise and through I was short $1,113.

 

What they had done was given me a 20% off an inflated price, and then before presenting me with the amount due, they applied the 25% FCC (that was the $1,113).  Then here was the great deal.  The price of the cruise - which was one year later than the one that was cancelled - had a base-rate (before the 20% off) that was 34% higher than the previous fare.

 

So that is the way passengers are treated.  So your money didn't disappear,  it was accounting misdirection.  

Thank you NCL for taking such good care of your loyal customers.

[Katie H]

This morning we have all of our FCC that was applied to our now cancelled December cruises back in our accounts exactly as it was before.  The 25% bonus FCC which had been used to reduce the price of the cruises is back as a bonus FCC with the same rules.  The dates remain the same - says "valid from 1/1/2012-4/1/2021" (I don't know why the 2012 date).  My understanding is that we have to apply it to a booked cruise by 4/1/21 and the cruise has to sail by 12/31/22.  Oddly, when I look at my account on the NCL app on my phone, it shows "valid from 4/1/20-12/31/22".  I don't know why they are not the same in both places.   And I don't know if we have to apply the FCC to something by 4/1/21 which will be hard to do since we don't really know what will be sailing when.

[BoundForSea]

On 11/4/2020 at 3:07 PM, Katie H said:

For our March/April cancelled cruises, ours was 125% of everything we paid - cruise fare; Govt. Tax/Port Exp/Fees; Bev Svc. Charge; Din Svc Charge.  It came out to the penny.  No fuzzy math.  We used part of it to pay for two December cruises which have now been cancelled.  Now waiting to see if it is all returned to us.  We did receive 20% off the price of several new cruises we booked within the time frame given.

I have same situation. May was CX, got 100% FCC and then the 25% one time FCC. Rebooked in Decemebr with the 20% discount as well and it cancelled. Now heres what I have: The 100% FCC is available, the 25% FCC One time bonus FCC, is now listed as unavailable and cant be used, I’m guessing because it was “One Time Use” it was applied to December and thats it, gone regardless of the Dec sailing being cancelled by them. 925$ worth mind you!! Painful. Before I call, can you guys confirm this is indeed the case? I don’t think its fair to take it away, alas we are talking about the cruise lines. 

[hallux]

19 hours ago, Seafan22 said:

So that is the way passengers are treated.  So your money didn't disappear,  it was accounting misdirection.  

Thank you NCL for taking such good care of your loyal customers

Prices fluctuate.  Were the prices you were quoted higher than advertised?  They're not simply inflating prices because of people booking using the offered discounts, they're raising prices because they anticipate sailing at lower capacity and their shareholders want the company to turn a profit!  Is that unfavorable for the customers?  Sure is, but that's how things work.

 

When oil supply is low (including artificially low because a producer decided to cut output), gas prices go up.  Same concept.

[sanger727]

20 hours ago, Seafan22 said:

I went through a similar “misunderstanding.“

 

I got my FCC and 25% FCC, booked a 20%-off cruise and through I was short $1,113.

 

What they had done was given me a 20% off an inflated price, and then before presenting me with the amount due, they applied the 25% FCC (that was the $1,113).  Then here was the great deal.  The price of the cruise - which was one year later than the one that was cancelled - had a base-rate (before the 20% off) that was 34% higher than the previous fare.

 

So that is the way passengers are treated.  So your money didn't disappear,  it was accounting misdirection.  

Thank you NCL for taking such good care of your loyal customers.

 

I'm confused. Did you not price the new cruise out before you rebooked? How did you come out "short"? Surely you realized when you priced out the new cruise that it was a higher price than the old one. Couldn't you have just sat on the FCC for a bit and waited until you found a better deal?

[Seafan22]

I was going through a TA. And what happened to me was, I was given the price, and then I argued for a few weeks about a missing $1,113.  And the travel Agent was agreeing with me that the account did not add up.  Then finally NCL said, "Oh, we applied the 25% FCC to the price right off the top," explain that that was where the money went.  So the price they quoted was not the price, it was a rack-rate, minus 20% minus my 25% FCC.  That is very shady.

 

I still may cancel and take the full FCC value and shope for a better trip.  I am waiting to see if that trip goes down, or if there is a better trip that I may want to switch to.

[Katie H]

13 hours ago, BoundForSea said:

I have same situation. May was CX, got 100% FCC and then the 25% one time FCC. Rebooked in Decemebr with the 20% discount as well and it cancelled. Now heres what I have: The 100% FCC is available, the 25% FCC One time bonus FCC, is now listed as unavailable and cant be used, I’m guessing because it was “One Time Use” it was applied to December and thats it, gone regardless of the Dec sailing being cancelled by them. 925$ worth mind you!! Painful. Before I call, can you guys confirm this is indeed the case? I don’t think its fair to take it away, alas we are talking about the cruise lines. 

All of our FCC that we had applied to the December cruises was returned yesterday, including the 25% bonus FCC that had been used to reduce the price of the cruises.  Our original cancellations were for 2 cruises in April/May for two of us, so we had 4 bonus FCC and 4 regular FCC.  All were back in our account yesterday morning with original certificate numbers.  I used two of the bonus FCC today to apply to  a January cruise (which will probably be cancelled). 

 

You should have received your bonus FCC back with the same certificate number.  Since I am keeping track of 8 FCCs, I have made up a page for each one and noting when an amount is applied to a cruise and when it comes back to me after cancellation.  I have a feeling there will be a lot of back and forth before we sail again.

 

You should definitely call about your missing bonus FCC - you are entitled to get it back.  Did you book direct or through a TA?

[the_scarecrow_in_oz]

On 11/5/2020 at 9:15 PM, BoundForSea said:

Now heres what I have: The 100% FCC is available, the 25% FCC One time bonus FCC, is now listed as unavailable and cant be used, I’m guessing because it was “One Time Use” it was applied to December and thats it

You should be getting that extra 25% put back into your account. It may be listed as "one time use" but in reality, you NEVER used it. It may have been APPLIED to your cruise in December, but since the cruise never occurred, it was never USED. I'd call an NCL agent and find out what happened to it. 

[Sailing12Away]

I guess I'm one of the lucky ones. My New Zealand cruise for Jan 21' was cancelled, and I was given a full refund of my deposit (this was cancelled well before final payment date). We booked a future cruise to Greece for Oct 21' instead and I had to get the CN consultant on the phone twice to get it right. They didn't apply the 10% at all at first, then they only applied it to myself although the 2 people who were cancelled for Jan were the same 2 people sailing in Oct.

 

So we combined the 20% off sale (which was actually one of their few rare 'good' sales) with the bonus 10% and snagged a great price for a 2BR suite. The bonus 10% was not off the total price, it was per passenger off the base sail rate only. But it's still better than nothing, and like I said, I've repriced our next 3 upcoming sailings multiple times and my original prices are still by far the best rates, so I'm happy.

[tgloersen]

That's why I got 100% back.  FCC is useless unless you can actually use it.  Not worth it.

[quigley]

The same thing happened to me. 

On 11/3/2020 at 6:41 PM, klfrodo said:

Don't know what your exact circumstances are, but in the cruiseline industry 1 + 1 does not equal 2

125% doesn't say exactly 125% of what.

125% of exactly what you paid? 125% of published brochure rate? 125% of new/updated published brochure rate.

 

And then the 20% off. 20% off what exactly?

 

I know on the cruiseline I'm more familiar with, they will offer 40% off drink package.

But that's not 40% off for what you can buy it right now,,, that's 40% off what the new cost will be if you purchase the package at full price while on the ship.

 

Cruiselines have some fuzzy accounting methods. They do not meet my logic, but they are legal.

The same thing happened to me and I have been fighting it for 3 weeks. My TA just got cancelled a few weeks ago.   I luckily took a camera shot of my credits on my account .  The FCC amount....the 25% bonus amount and the 10% discount.  But it doesn't seem to help.   When I went to book the next cruise and I was expecting to have $1200 left over they told me I OWED them money!!!!!!!!  When I went to check my amounts again ....guess what they were all gone from my account???? They told me I used the 25% credit on a cruise already...which was pretty funny because I paid for that cruise LAST YEAR !  How could I use it on a cruise I paid off last november when my TA cruise wasn't even cancelled yet.  Every time I contact someone they tell me to call someone else.  It is so frustrating..  I am a PLatinum plus member of ncl but i think after this I may be moving on.  $1200 is a lot of MONEY.

It would have paid for another cruise.  VERY DISCOURAGING.